Any traveler going to Dubai will be considered by the Philippine Government as a potential expense as many Filipinos plan to find work and get deported by the Philippine government. As great as the OFW’s are to the economy, they are not paying a penny for their government to send them home. It’s the taxpayers back home paying for their repatriation.

Life Begins Here

For many times in my life, I don’t want to go through the process. I just want the results. I want the intimacy, not the spending time. I want the faith, I don’t want the desperation. I want healthy boundaries; I don’t want the mistakes to find it. I want the hope, not the falling and standing up. I want the girl, not the challenge. Well, life is about taking the journey to get to your destination. 😀

A little child of faith on a long impossible journey

For some reason the journey gets heavier because of “culture” and “Christian tradition”. At other times, we put it on ourselves. I am a perfectionist, and though I talk about the Grace and Love of God, in practice I am blind and continue to work for God to accept me. There are some practices that hurt our journey by putting heavy rocks onto our already heavy load. Then we burden Continue reading →

How to Catch Myself in Approval Seeking and Validation

A few weeks ago, I went out for some personal evaluation as the year 2017 comes to an end. After a few notes, I am suddenly aware that most of my effort is to maintain approval, seek validation of a group of people I’m not even close to. I was seeking validation.

Filipinos are a breed of sentimental people. They seldom like goodbyes. But there was one goodbye from this place a thousand years ago that was equally heavy emotionally: Moses who has fought and prayed and fasted to reach the Promise Land is a few kilometers of his goal but God says, this is as far as you can go. From the thick air which blurs out the whole valley, we could see miles and miles of endless sand, glimmering in the morning sun while cool breeze blow through my face.

Singapore: A Lifestyle of Learning!

Mahatma Gandhi once said that “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

Trekking outside our bed and breakfast accomodations, we found ourselves trekking the Serangoon Community. My only association to the place is a TV Series titled Serangoon Road. Turn to this link to read about my thoughts on the community. Even the church, though simple, is well planned with a fine entrance. We walked through the hot mid day sun in search of nourishment for our starving bellies. We planned to go to NEX Mall and instead, we found ourselves at the helm of Bartley station.

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Bartley Station, Singapore

Bartley Station, Singapore

After a lot of sweat and tears and a few gardens, we reached NEX Mall. We strolled through the shops to the foodcourt and pounced on Indian Cuisine.

Crossing to Serangoon Station

NEX Mall Entrance and Serangoon Station

NEX Mall – Beriyani, Nan, Parata and Curry

NEX Mall – Beriyani, Nan, Parata and Curry

NEX Mall – Beriyani, Nan, Parata and Curry

NEX Mall – Beriyani, Nan, Parata and Curry

NEX Mall – Beriyani, Nan, Parata and Curry

NEX Mall Singapore Station

NEX Mall Singapore Station

Quirky as it seems, we were on vacation on Singapore and of all places, we had to be in the Library. We found this to be at the roofdeck of NEX Mall!

How convenient! And the place was cozy with students doing assignments and drawings on the floor, and every delightful book including comics are available on shelf. Who wouldn’t have a love for books for a city like that. You could even borrow or return a book on weekends. The public library was open on weekends!

I am thinking. No matter how brilliant or intelligent a country is, if the other government is making it this easy to read – English, Malay, Tamil or Mandarin, wouldn’t they eventually win? And easy to guess why it is hard for us to catch up and they are far ahead – they have created a lifestyle of learning!